San Francisco Lawmaker Wants to Ban Blue Angels from Flying over City

Pilots of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly in a delta formation during a training flight over the beaches of Pensacola, Fla., on Oct. 23, 2013. (DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Terrence Siren, U.S. Navy)
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City Supervisor John Avalos, who long has waged a public battle decrying the squadron's aerial acrobatics over San Francisco -- at one point calling them loud "killing machines" -- has introduced a nonbinding resolution to require the jets to only fly over the bay.

He says the ban on flights over populated areas is needed to protect residents, and give them peace of mind.

"It's about them crashing and hitting a building -- a place where people live," Avalos told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's about the terror that they cause in people when they strafe neighborhoods. That's something I hear about all the time when Blue Angels fly overhead."

While facing plenty of Twitter backlash for his comments, Avalos claimed a majority of residents oppose the flyovers that take place during the annual Fleet Week in October.

Despite his complaints, Avalos told the Chronicle he expects the resolution, which he introduced on Tuesday, will not pass.

Avalos' office did not respond to calls for comment. A Navy spokesman also did not return a request for comment on the proposal.

It is not the first time Avalos was part of a move to ban the Blue Angels.

As a staffer for then-Supervisor Chris Daly in 2007, Avalos reportedly helped write a similar resolution that never moved beyond the committee level.

Last year, Avalos used Fleet Week as an opportunity to launch an all-out Twitter assault on the military.

Even in a city of colorful politicians, Avalos is good at grabbing headlines.

In 2012, he was conflicted over whether to name a ship after Harvey Milk, one of the nation's first openly gay politicians, who was gunned down by a colleague in 1978. Avalos wondered how Milk might have felt about the idea, so he used a Ouija board to solicit his opinion.

The Board ended up backing the resolution to name a ship after Milk, who had served in the Navy before getting a seat on the Board of Supervisors.